About DCC

One of the largest pop culture celebrations in North America, DCC is produced by the non-profit Pop Culture Classroom and differentiated by its ongoing, unwavering commitment to promoting pop culture-based education for all.

Denver Comic Con (DCC) is a 3-day, family-friendly pop culture fan extravaganza, featuring the best in pop culture entertainment. DCC is a program of the Colorado nonprofit Pop Culture Classroom, whose mission is to inspire a love of learning, to increase literacy, celebrate diversity and build community through pop culture education. The proceeds from this annual event benefit Pop Culture Classroom’s overall educational endeavors.

Unity Mission

Denver Comic Con promotes education and community, educating children and the general public through pop culture, comics and the bringing together diverse people and interests in our community regardless of age, race, gender or background. By focusing on education and providing guests, programming and events that encourage diversity, we strive to promote tolerance and empower the members of our community.

Educational Outreach

Every year we have 500+ hours of specifically-educational programming and plan to more than 500 total hours of panels, workshops and events.

DCC dedicates nearly 10,000 square feet on the show floor to our younger and teen fans. Called the the PCC Kids Lab, this is where they can learn through creating, listen to their favorite comic artist/writer speak, and feel welcomed in the geek community.

We host a Literary Conference during DCC and offer graduate credits to our educator friends who want to learn how to bring pop culture into the classroom.

We feature a game development space – now on the exhibit floor and called The Arena – where Colorado video and board game development companies show off their newest project.

We feature an annual cosplay contest (“The Classic”) and other activities that educate the public on this growing popular subculture and performance art.

Local Impact

DCC is one of the few independently operated events of its size and type. Because the event attracts tourists from all over the country, it has a positive impact on the local economy. In fact, more than 75% of our merchants are Colorado-local, and we showcase various local artist talent.

Volunteering

We couldn’t pull off this event without the assistance of our volunteers! More than a thousand volunteers put in tens-of-thousands of hours of their time. Wow! These hours can also help us meet the requirements for matching funds from grants as well as corporate social responsibility programs.

More About Pop Culture Classroom

Pop Culture Classroom was founded in 2010 as Comic Book Classroom, a Colorado charitable organization focused on enhancing and improving student’s learning experience through the use of comic book media. At the same time, the founders of Comic Book Classroom also created the Denver Comic Con event. The original founders of Comic Book Classroom and Denver Comic Con are Charlie LaGreca, Frank Romero, David Vinson and Kevin Vinson.

Proceeds from Denver Comic Con fund the staffing, supplies and infrastructure of The Classroom program, which gives educators fresh, innovative materials and training that use the power of pop culture to bring their classroom to life. Their debut curriculum, Storytelling Through Comics, is a graphic literature creation program that is offered to schools, teachers and community organizations.

Game On! is a play-based curriculum where students learn about and develop their own board games based on a topic of the teacher’s choosing. The Literacy Education in Adult Detention (LEAD) With Comics program is for incarcerated adults, helping to improve their literacy and art skills using comics and graphic novels. And Colorful History is a free, bi-weekly comic about diverse characters and events from Colorado’s history that comes with a teacher guide.

In 2014, the Comic Book Classroom Board of Directors voted to change the name to Pop Culture Classroom (PCC). The name change reflects the board’s broader vision for the organization. In addition to expanding the reach of our current curriculum and offerings, PCC seeks to use other elements of pop culture to advance our mission of literacy education and to spark the creative spirit within every child.